Study will focus on childhood diabetes

Now that type 2 diabetes has become so common among children that it can no longer be called "adult onset" diabetes, 12 medical centers nationwide, including two in Boston, are launching a $90 million study to figure out how best to treat its victims. Type 2 diabetes is closely associated with obesity and a sedentary lifestyle, so a good part of diabetes management involves diet and exercise. But the study involving Massachusetts General Hospital and Joslin Diabetes Center focuses on the best drug regimen to control blood glucose levels. Type 2 diabetics have difficulty processing sugar in their blood, in part because their bodies don't respond properly to insulin.

"The diabetes epidemic, with more than 800,000 new cases per year in the US, is now affecting all segments of the population, including children. Effective therapy is critical, since children will have this devastating disease for a lifetime," Dr. David Nathan, chief Boston investigator of the new study and director of Mass. General's Diabetes Center, stated in a press release.

Those wishing to learn more about participating in the five-year federally-funded study, known by its acronym TODAY, may call 1-866-223-8644.

SCOTT ALLEN

Preventing mistakes starts on the desktop

Now, Massachusetts doctors, nurses and other health-care professionals can take a course in preventing medical errors right at their computer, thanks to a new online course offered by the Massachusetts Medical Society. The curriculum, which covers everything from the danger of sloppy handwriting on prescriptions to finding the root cause of mistakes, is offered free to health-care professionals at the Medical Society's website, www.massmed.org, as part of the doctors' continuing education efforts.

Medical errors are a leading preventable cause of death, killing 44,000 to 98,000 people in hospitals annually, according to research estimates.

SCOTT ALLEN

Cystic-fibrosis patients to get special treatment

Children's Hospital officials have closed their outpatient waiting room to patients who have cystic fibrosis to prevent the spread of a rare strain of bacteria that a new study shows is more dangerous than previously known. At least 20 of the 450 cystic-fibrosis patients treated at the hospital carry the bacteria, called Burkholderia dolosa. The bacteria are harmless to healthy people, but patients with cystic fibrosis, whose lungs chronically fill with fluid, are highly susceptible to infection. The new study, carried out by Children's researchers, shows that patients who harbor the bacteria tend to lose lung capacity more quickly. Adding to concerns, Burkholderia dolosa is resistant to many antibiotics, making it harder to kill.

"Patients who come to clinic will be placed immediately into an exam room and all clinical services will be brought to that exam room," hospital officials wrote to cystic-fibrosis patients and their families last week. Children's warned them to minimize contact outside the hospital also, noting, "infections may be spread outside the hospital setting."

SCOTT ALLEN

Computerizing patient records can be tricky

The US Department of Veterans Affairs and Department of Defense face an expensive and daunting job: Take 10.4 million different patient medical records, put them online, and allow doctors and hospitals nationwide access, without compromising patient privacy. They've turned to Dr. John Halamka, chief information officer at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, for advice. Halamka will testify tomorrow before Congress's Committee on Veterans Affairs about his experience creating an online system for 9 million patient records at Beth Israel Deaconess and its partner hospitals and doctors.

He established a system that allows doctors and other medical staff to review patients' records through a secure website, a system he said helps prevent medication errors and unnecessary tests because doctors can easily review a patient's history and prescriptions. Veterans Affairs is hoping to set up a similar system for military personnel. It will cost the VA millions more than it cost Beth Israel Deaconess. Halamka donated a large portion of his labor because the project was his MIT thesis for a master's degree in medical informatics.

LIZ KOWALCZYK

Bringing emergency medicine to Tuscany
Physicians from Beth Israel are working with the Tuscan Ministry of Health to develop a training program for Italian doctors who want to specialize in emergency medicine. Though Americans take the fast-paced ER drill almost for granted, Beth Israel doctors working in Florence say it's still a new idea there. "I don't think that many of the physicians [in Tuscany] have a very good idea of what emergency medicine is," Dr. Kevin Ban of Beth Israel who is spearheading the program, stated in a press release. "We are working with doctors who are very talented on the clinical side, but the emergency medical system here is tremendously cumbersome" because care is handled by a series of specialists rather than centralized under emergency medical care.

SCOTT ALLEN